Connecticut western news., 1887-10-05
ARABIAN WOMEN.
A Housewife's Duties in Modern
 Bible Land.
Syrian Danes Work Hard While
 Their Husbands Loaf.

AASAA ASC&Aa IT There arc grand women in Arabia; women of ability, keen in insight, and wonderful capabilities, writes Florence
 fpnes in the Swiss Cross. The duties of fhe wife of Syrian to-day are as fol- Iowsa a4e brings all the water for lisa4h blisled by filling immense jars, and bringing them upon her head. She rises early, and goes to the handmill of the village, carrying corn, enough of which for the days bread she grinds by slow, laborious process. This she car ries home and cooks in an oven, which is made in the earth. It is round hole, lined with oval and flat stones, and heated by fire built in it. When the bread is mixed with water and little salt, she removes the ashes, and plasters pats of dough against the hot stones to cook. Could anything be more crude? She cares for her children, en,-unusually large family, and does all the rough work at intervals, while the husband calmly smokes his angelic, or sits cross legged upon his divan, or house-top, in converse with some equally hard-work- ing member of Syrian society. The houses are made of a coarse stone, roughly hewn. The house tops arc of clay, covered with coarse gravel. In hot weather the sun bakes this mud formed roof, and large cracks appear. The rain comes, and, as a natural consc- quencc, the roof leaks. This is some- thing of which the fastidious inhabitant of the Bible Land does not approve. It does not add to his bodily comfort. He remedies the difficulty, tell you how9 Not by any effort of his own; far from it; his wife comes, ascends to the house-top, and in the drenching rain, propels roller of solid stone, backward and forward, much as we use lawn mower. This rolls the sum- dried cracks together, and prevents the entrance of water. These are only few of Syrian housewife's duties. Her reward is not in this world surely. She cannot speak to her husband in public; she eau receive no caress before his friends. She goes yelled, and scantily clad. She has no time to make her own habiliments, for ahcr hands must weave and pin a1d ef6- broider artistically and abundantly for the husband an6E male children. In winter her feet are protected only by open wooden sandals, and drops of blood mark the way to the Syrian we'll. Of course this is among the lower and mid- dle classes of society in Syria, but those who belong to higher class are very few. The wealth of Syrian family is not in money, but is estimated according to the number of herds of camels, goats, sheep, and cattle it possesses. The women are fond of ornament, but have little op- portunity for it. They always wear the "round tire like the moon," spoken of in the Bible. Even the children have these on. The form is half-moon. A single row of silver coins overlapping one another, and sewed upon a piece of coarse material through single hole bored in one side, is attached to square of cloth, having long strings, which tie under the black hair. This allows the coins to rest in curve about the fore head. One of these tires, which we had, weighed four pounds and six ounces, and was was worth $80. We now have child's tire, which weighs two pounds. Over the round tire is worn the heavy, hand-woven, linen veil. The specimen we have is worth $50, and is large enough for a piano cover. All the silk for embroidery is gathered by women from the silk-worms, and must be spun and dyed before they can use It. If mother in Syria presents daughter to her husband, he is bitterly disap- pointed. When you ask Syrian parent, ''How many children have you?' if his family consists of five boys and six daughters, he will tell you, "I have five children" They only count boys This seems bitterly cruel when the workers of Syria are of the other sex. The girls arc dark-eyed, raven-haircd, of olive complexion, and usually of medium height, though somc are extremely tall and muscular.